Day Five: Writing In Sickness and in Health

But I’m still on target for word count, largely because I just scribbled in low hanging fruit… for example I wrote the intro today.

Along with the ‘this is a work of fiction though actual historical characters and buildings appear’ disclaimer bit I put down some things I’ve learned about my heroine sleuth…

Sophia Blackmore (1857-1945) the first woman missionary sent by the Methodist Women’s Foreign Missionary Society to Singapore was born in Australia to a family which had migrated from London. With the support of the Reverend Oldham she helped to found two girls schools (known today as the Methodist Girls’ School and the Fairfield Methodist Secondary School) and set up a boarding home for girls. Known initially as the Deaconess Home because it also housed single lady missionaries and teachers and then as Nind Home after Mary C. Nind, the home served as residence to school-going girls as well as runaways, mui tsais, abandoned girls and orphans who became known as The Blackmore Girls.